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| 0448 |
Innermost Asia : vol.1 |
Citation Information
OCR Text
Use of
camel
transport.
This fact and the great distance, over two hundred miles, from the base at Tun-huang must have vastly increased the difficulties of the problem of supplies and transport, so far as the western portion of the old route to Lou-lan was concerned. Yet, although we shall never know the exact details of the organization, it is certain that the problem had been courageously faced ever since the Emperor Wu-ti first launched his trade missions and then his expeditions to the Tārim basin and beyond. As the greatest obstacle of all was, no doubt, the absence of water, it seems safe to assume that the fullest possible use was made, on this inhospitable tract, of camel transport, as being least in need of regular watering. That camels were particularly plentiful in Lou-lan is attested by the notice of the territory in the Former Han Annals.¹² The employment of large trains of camels for the carriage of water, provisions and fuel would undoubtedly offer the best means of overcoming the obstacles to traffic presented by this wholly waterless ground. But it must be remembered that during the four hottest months of the year, i. e. from May to August, camels could not possibly be worked in the Lop basin without enormous losses.¹³
Probability
of cart
traffic.
Account should also be taken of the probability that a considerable proportion of the traffic along the route was conveyed in horse-, mule-, or ox-drawn carts, a mode of transport for which the Chinese all through Kan-su and Central Asia still retain a time-honoured attachment, and the use of which is attested by Chinese documents from the Lou-lan site.¹⁴ It offered undoubted advantages in the matter of ease, and its employment would encounter no extraordinary obstacle on either side of the wholly waterless portion of the desert. But what difficulties it necessarily involved on the five long marches without water is revealed by a simple calculation. More than one-half of the useful load of a mule- or horse-drawn cart would be absorbed by the water and fodder alone needed for the animals, while the rest would barely allow for the carriage of four passengers with a minimum of baggage, or of the water and rations required by four mounted men.¹⁵
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